Whilst reading reading this, and subsequent pages, as we explain the search you may want to open a separate browser window to follow the search using links from our Family History resources page. This way you can see the data as we discover it in a sort of walk through tutorial. The best way to learn how to do something is to be guided with real information so we will explain our logic on each step and decision enabling you to gain a full understanding of the topic. Keep your mind open to developing your own techniques because the purpose of this project will differ from your own in that you will probably be searching on a single surname whilst we will be concentrating on finding connections from one family to the next and so on.
Our reasoning is that when you, or your parents or grandparents, see the name of one of your known ancestors you will be able to provide more information on that person. Even better, this may encourage you to start your own research, in which case we can add the data to ours and we can all watch the project grow. As the quantity of data becomes larger we will mirror it on a recognised genealogy site to give full search capabilities.
Today we start on building the Whitstable Family File. (This originally started of as the Oyster Gedcom but now has a more understandable name).
Now we need somewhere to start. We could begin at the present day and work backwards but this gives the difficulty of naming living people, which genealogists tend not to do without permission. Perhaps we will start as far back as we can, but then the problems of scarcity of pre 1834 records might provide us with too many brick-walls. Instead we'll begin with the 1881 census data as this is available at no cost on the FamilySearch web site of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. This starting place gives us a central period with which we can search either way.
Who do we start with? Well we already have our microcosm of 1881 in Beach Alley. In the first dwelling on the census sheet lived the Shingelston family. As this is not a common name perhaps it will help narrow our search and make our job easy. Let's see how we get on.
First we'll refresh our memories of the census data for the family:
| Name | Rel. | M?. | Gen. | Age | Birthplace | Occupation | |
| ~ | Shingelston, George | Head | M | M | 27 | Whitstable, Kent. | Oyster Dredger |
| Shingelston, Fanny | Wife | M | F | 27 | Whitstable, Kent. | Wife of Oyster Dredger | |
| Shingelston, Nellie G | Daughter | F | 3 | Whitstable, Kent. | |||
| Shingelston, Ernest G | Son | M | 1 | Whitstable, Kent. | |||
| Bridght, Graceht | Sister | U | F | 23 | Whitstable, Kent. | Domestic Cook |
Data © Public Record Office.
The source for this information had been the Family Search site of the Mormon Church. This gives us two possible points of error in the data:
- The enumerator getting the correct information written down including spellings.
- The transcriber being able to read the writing clearly and copying it correctly.
I am concerned with a couple of things in our data here.
Firstly the spelling of the surname. I would have expected it to be spelt
'Shingleston', ie. 'le' in the centre not 'el'. I have no experience of the
origin of the name and the spellings of the time, but in a seaside town with a
shingle (stone) beach any derivative of 'shinglestone' would give us more than
one possible name to use in conducting searches.
Secondly the last name on the list 'Bridght, Graceht'. At first I thought the
name looked almost Germanic, then seeing that she was apparently George's
sister I was more inclined to think that we had a spelling or transcription
error here. For now I will put these thoughts to one side. It may well be that
as we move on more information will come to light that enables us to correct
this error.
One thing we do know about this era is that people did not move home as far as they might do these days. Bearing this in mind there should be other people of the same surname in the town especially as the birth rate was much higher then.
Let's then search for all occurrences of 'Shingelston' born in Whitstable on the 1881 census for Whitstable.
The search returns the people listed above and the following family living in Waterloo Place:
| Name | Rel. | M?. | Gen. | Age | Birthplace | Occupation | |
| ~ | Shingelston, James W | Head | M | M | 30 | Whitstable, Kent. | Oyster Dredger |
| Shingelston, Sarah | Wife | M | F | 30 | Whitstable, Kent. | Wife of Oyster Dredger | |
| Shingelston, James W | Son | M | 10 | Whitstable, Kent. | Scholar | ||
| Shingelston, Charles | Son | M | 7 | Whitstable, Kent. | Scholar | ||
| Shingelston, Amelia H | Daughter | F | 5 | Whitstable, Kent. | Scholar | ||
| Shingelston, Alfred G | Son | M | 3 | Whitstable, Kent. | |||
| Shingelston, Hubert | Son | M | 6m | Whitstable, Kent. | |||
| Rigden, Agness | Niece | F | 14 | Whitstable, Kent. | Nurse Maid |
Data © Public Record Office.
Ok, so what does this tell us? We appear to have picked up a brother or cousin of George and that the spelling of the surname is correct. Some thing is still bothering me though. Now I remember. Waterloo Place no longer exists, but Waterloo Road does. One side of this road has a pensioner's day-centre which was built in the 1960's. The rest of this side of the road is taken up with sheltered acommodation built more recently. My guess, which I'll need to research to confirm, is that Waterloo Place was that side of Waterloo Road, in which case it backed onto Beach Alley.
Beach Alley today |  | The Saltings, to Beach Alley |
I have no knowledge of the enumerators exact area or route, but if he covered Beach Alley then he undoubtably also covered Waterloo Road. So, if he got the spelling of the surname wrong the first time I would have expected him to repeat his error the second time.
To test this theory we'll go back to George on the 1881 census. Once viewing the Household record again we'll click on the 'Previous Household' link. There we are, Waterloo Place!
So far,
- Confirmed the enumerators spelling of Shingelston.
- Found some possible relatives.
- Learnt about the changes in the area.
From information discovered since the initial writing of this page it appears that Waterloo Road did not exist in name until just before 1900. Apparently before that time it was a cul-de-sac called Waterloo Place, leading off Island Wall, culminating in an alleyway into Middle Wall between houses that ran the length of Middle Wall. We are aware that a lot of houses were damaged in this area in the 1897 floods, so it seems reasonable to assume that Waterloo Place became Waterloo Road in the rebuilding as a result of this damage. If any knows more specific details we would like to hear from you so that we can set the record straight.
Ready to carry on? NEXT
